


Running After You

by Carrieosity



Series: Tumblr Bunnies and Ficlets - Supernatural [11]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Castiel and Jimmy Novak are Twins, College, Coming Out, Getting Together, Growing Up Together, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Runner Dean Winchester, Runners, Sports, Twincest, implied semi-public sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-22 23:38:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,556
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18537802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carrieosity/pseuds/Carrieosity
Summary: When Dean joined his father at his regular weekend morning running club, he expected nothing more than an exercise in suffering. Instead, he found himself at the beginning of something he never saw coming.





	Running After You

**Author's Note:**

> A Tumblr prompt from [tobythewise](https://tobythewise.tumblr.com/): "Sending a prompt your way! DCJ. High school running buddies turned more <3"

**I.**

Dean really had nobody to blame but himself.

He glared out the windshield into the dim light of early dawn, made even dimmer by the fog that lay thick around the moving car. His hands were jammed deep into his jacket pockets, despite the warm air pumping out of the car’s heater; just looking at the sleepy world outside made Dean feel chilled to the bone, wishing he could be back in bed at home. It had been almost painful to crawl out from under his warm quilt this morning, mumbling a “Yes, sir” to Dad when he’d tapped on Dean’s door frame to wake him.

But it really was his own fault. Dean hated mornings, he hated being cold, and he hate-hate-HATED jogging, but he’d never been able to resist trying to make his dad proud. When Dad had invited him to come along with him to his regular Saturday morning running club, like it was some kind of mark of growing up, Dean’s chest had swelled with pride and he’d enthusiastically agreed before even considering what he was committing to do.

He was going running. In the cold. At seven o’freaking-clock in the goddamn morning. Because he was a goddamn moron.

But Dad was humming along with the radio, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the music, and he looked so content and placidly cheerful that there was absolutely no way Dean could bring himself to complain out loud. For some reason, when Dad had taken up running—a replacement hobby when he’d quit smoking a couple of years back—it had become this _thing_ for him, chilling him out like nothing else ever had. The way he put it, all the demons in his head just shut up when his heart got pumping and his feet found their rhythm. Dean was happy for him; he really was.

 _That doesn’t mean you had to go sign up for a taste of his preferred brand of self-torture,_ he thought grouchily. A yawn threatened to escape his jaws, but Dean stubbornly swallowed it down as best he could.

The tires crunched as Dad steered the car into a gravel parking lot. Through the fog, Dean could make out a number of other figures moving around the parked vehicles. It looked as though there was no shortage of masochists out here. Maybe one or two of them would be slowpokes, so Dean wouldn’t have to feel too bad if he had to take walking breaks. Maybe there would be some old farts who wanted to walk the whole time; Dean could lie and say he was trying to be respectful by hanging back with them.

The two of them got out and approached the group, the sounds of their footsteps echoing eerily in the damp air. “Hey, gang,” Dad greeted them. “Brought fresh meat with me today. This is my son, Dean.”

“Hello, Dean,” said a thin, bearded man. “I’m Chuck. Your father’s told us a lot about you and your brother. Good to have you with us.” He held out a hand to Dean, like he was welcoming a peer rather than a kid; Dean felt both awkward and gratified as he shook it. “How old were you? Sophomore year?”

“Junior,” Dean corrected. “Got a January birthday, so I’m the youngest in my classes.”

“Oh, good,” Chuck said, which confused Dean for a moment. “You might know my boys, then. James and Castiel? There aren’t too many twins at the high school, so…” He laughed, shrugging.

 _Oh._ “Yeah,” Dean said. “I know them.” Honestly, there probably wasn’t a person in the entire high school who didn’t know the Novak twins. They were kind of hard to miss: Castiel, with his near-genius brains and crazy academic achievements, and Jimmy, the charismatic class president who was everybody’s best friend. Beyond that, they were both incredible athletes in multiple sports. Sure, Dean knew them, the way a bug knew a porch light. He decided not to mention that, though.

“That’s great,” Chuck said, grinning eagerly. “You can run with them, then. This going to be a thing, people? We all bringing our kids, replace ourselves as we get too old for this nonsense?”

The group all chuckled at the joke, but Dean was too busy processing what he’d heard. _Run with the Novaks? Is he nuts?_ Even if he stood a chance at being able to keep up, they’d probably ditch him, anyway. Why would those guys want to deal with an uninvited tag-along like—

“Here come the early birds,” a woman said, and sure enough, a couple of shadows emerged from the mist along the edge of the lot, solidifying into the forms of Jimmy and Castiel as they approached. They looked like something out of a sports magazine, in short running shorts and shirts made from fancy technical fabrics. Both boys were already sweating a little, and one—Jimmy, Dean thought, by the slightly shorter haircut—had mud on his knees, as though he’d fallen on the trail.

“Sorry we’re a little late getting back,” Castiel panted. “Jimmy’s fault.”

Jimmy made a face, punching his brother’s shoulder. “Sure, blame me for the mud puddle. You’re in front, you’re supposed to give a heads-up, not just jump over it at the last second and laugh when the guy behind you falls.” Castiel pushed back, and as Jimmy laughed and staggered to catch his balance, he glanced up at the group, eyes widening. “Dean Winchester? What are you doing here?”

“Uh,” said Dean in surprise. “You…” He stopped himself before blurting something stupid like “You know me?” Luckily, their dad decided to jump in.

“Is that how we’re greeting new club members now? Jeez, manners, Jimmy.” Nodding in Dad’s direction, Chuck added, “That’s Dean’s dad. You know John, right?”

“We didn’t know you were related,” Castiel said. Now he was watching Dean, too, something unreadable in his eyes. Dean swallowed, trying not to fidget under the scrutiny.

“If you guys are warmed up, then, we can all get started,” Dad suggested, checking his watch as he started forward in the direction from which the twins had come. “Dean, it’s just a loop around the lake, so if you get separated, just make sure you stay right at any forks you hit.”

“He can run with us,” said Jimmy, trotting over to stand on Dean’s left. On Dean’s right, Castiel was already nodding.

“Uh, are you sure?” Dean asked dubiously. “I’m not really a runner. I’m just…here.”

Castiel shrugged, unbothered. “We’ve already gotten in an hour. For my part, I don’t mind at all to go your pace at this point. And Jimmy’s a little tired, I think.”

Jimmy grumbled, glaring, “Again, who’s fault would that be,” and then they were jogging easily down the path. Dean found himself caught in their wake, his legs moving without conscious thought.

* * *

**II.**

“Well, isn’t it obvious?” Castiel said, rifling through the brochures scattered across Dean’s bed. “UN-Lincoln has the best mechanical engineering program of all your options. Why would you not put them at the top of your list? Not to mention that it’s where we’re going,” he added with a smirk.

Dean winced a little. Of course the twins would be attending Lincoln. They were both almost sure of a free ride, based on their test scores, grades, and transcripts, as well as being double legacies, since both Chuck and their step-dad were alumni. He leaned forward, putting a hand on the pamphlet for the community college. “I dunno,” he said.

From his spot on the floor by the bed, Jimmy made a disgruntled noise. “Really?” he said. “Haven’t you already made about a dozen pros and cons lists? Almost every time, Lincoln wins, hands-down.” He grunted as he stretched forward over one extended leg, working at a stubborn hamstring that had tightened up on their earlier run and now refused to relax.

“Yeah, except for the cost,” Dean muttered. Dad and Mom had already told him not to worry about that, over and over; Dad was thrilled at the idea of having raised a first-generation college student, and he insisted that they had enough in savings to cover the finances. Dean was pretty sure there wasn’t enough for two college degrees, though, and there was no way he wanted to steal college from Sammy. “I could get more assistance even if I just stayed in-state.”

“You could get assistance anywhere,” Jimmy argued. “Come on, Dean. You can’t just not even try for your first choice.”

“I don’t want to think about it right now,” Dean said abruptly, sweeping up all the papers and stuffing them into a desk drawer. _I don’t want to think about how lonely it’s going to be when you guys leave._ In the half a year since he’d joined the Novaks in the weekend running club, they’d become the closest friends he had. He thought they might be the best friends he’d ever had, actually, and the three of them spent more time together than not. Dean had discovered that he actually sort of _liked_ running, after all, though he certainly liked it a lot more when he was flying along side-by-side with Jimmy and Cas. They’d even talked him into joining the school track and cross-country teams, and he was still a little stunned when he looked at the medals now hanging from his bulletin board.

Jimmy and Castiel exchanged a look, communicating without a word. They did that sort of thing a lot, but Dean was used to it by now. “Fine,” Castiel said, though his tone clearly said that they weren’t giving up yet. “We had something else to discuss anyway. Three weekends from now, the comic convention in KC. We want to go for the whole weekend—drive over on Friday, stay through Sunday. Are you in?”

Dean grabbed his phone and pulled up the calendar. “Hell, yeah, but…” He frowned. “What about the spring formal? It’s that weekend, too. Aren’t you going to that?” A small feeling of unease stirred in his own stomach. For some reason, he hadn’t been all that excited about trying to find a date and go to the dance, himself. A couple of girls had been flirting lately, hinting that they’d like him to ask, but he just felt…uninterested? It was weird; Dean hardly knew those girls, and they sure didn’t know him, not really. Not like—

But that was something else he didn’t want to think about.

“Oh, that,” Jimmy said with a sigh. He traded another look with his brother. “Not really our scene.”

“Really?” Dean asked. “What, you don’t already have about five girls lined up to go with each of you?” He snorted at his own joke, but the jibe seemed to rebound on him, lodging uncomfortably in his throat.

Castiel rolled his eyes. “Don’t be stupid,” he replied. “We’ve been out of the closet since junior high, practically. I’m fairly certain the female population of our school would rather date boys with whom they might have a ghost of a chance.”

“You didn’t know?” Jimmy said with a laugh, which stopped as soon as it started, as his eyes went wide. “You…didn’t know.”

Dean was trying to make sense of what he’d just heard. “We didn’t move here until tenth grade,” he said faintly. “And…I don’t listen to gossip much.”

“And there wouldn’t have been much to hear,” Jimmy groaned. “Jesus. Dean, you’re not…dude, tell me you’re not gonna be _weird_ about this, are you?” Castiel was watching him just as closely, eyes narrowed and serious.

Quickly, Dean shook his head, holding out his hands with palms out. “No! No, of course not! I’m just surprised, is all. And a little embarrassed about all the jokes, now. Why didn’t you guys tell me I was making an ass of myself?” Now that he thought back, he felt horrible about the assumptions he’d made. Just because these guys were gorgeous, flirty, and charming, that didn’t mean they were players. It didn’t mean they were sleeping with half the student body, or even that they were sleeping with anyone at all.

“Aw, but your ass is cute,” Jimmy teased. Castiel grabbed Dean’s pillow and threw it at his brother’s face.

“No worries,” Castiel said, turning to Dean with a smile. “Now, the comic convention?”

* * *

**III.**

At graduation, Chuck and Dad were smiling and chatting easily in the folding chairs that filled the football field. Sweating in uncomfortable robes, Dean, Jimmy, and Castiel sat in their own chairs, waiting for the ceremony to start.

“Think they’re already planning what to do with our rooms?” Jimmy whispered. Castiel shrugged, grinning, and Dean tried to suppress his laugh.

It was a beautiful day, warm and sunny. Sam and Mom were sitting out there, too, and Sam was actually excitedly waving a little University of Nebraska flag. When Dean got the signing letter from the school’s athletics department, offering a generous tuition package in exchange for Dean’s running talents, Sam’s cheers had been louder than anyone else’s. No little brother had ever been as proud of his older brother.

As it turned out, Castiel’s determination had taken the form of setting up an NCSA profile for Dean, putting him on the radar for college recruiters in a way Dean couldn’t have imagined would ever happen. Dean would never be able to express his gratitude enough, and now he was going away to college with his best friends. Life couldn’t get better.

“You know, college is going to be a whole different world,” he mused under his breath. “Like, all sorts of opportunities, things to try. I feel like there’s a whole life out there, just waiting.”

“You planning to go crazy, get things pierced and throw orgies in our dorm room?” Jimmy muttered.

Castiel leaned toward them both. “Pierce whatever you like, but I really think the orgy schedule needs to be agreed upon in advance.”

“Stick in the mud,” Jimmy retaliated with a wink.

A voice clearing over the PA system put an end to the banter, as the crowd shuffled to its feet for the beginning of the ceremony, and Dean found himself awkwardly grateful for the robe’s camouflage. Now was not the time to be thinking about orgies with Jimmy and Castiel.

* * *

**IV.**

In hindsight, Dean felt incredibly dumb for all the clues he must have missed. To be fair, though, it wasn’t as though Jimmy and Castiel had been as open about _this_ as they had been about their sexuality. Understandable, but it didn’t make this moment easier.

“Um,” Dean said, frozen in the doorway to the locker room. Across the room, just as frozen in place, Castiel and Jimmy stood with their arms around each other, heads swiveled toward the door, mouths open in shock. Castiel, just finished showering after a soccer game, was gloriously bare, and one of Jimmy’s hands was still gripping at his brother’s ass. Neither twin moved or spoke. Dean coughed and tried again. “I was…I was bringing…you left your towel on the bleachers.” Weakly, he held up the terry cloth.

The moment stretched. Nobody seemed to know what to do. As the silence extended, Dean felt worse and worse. _God, I am such an idiot._ It was strange; the fact that the two of them were obviously hooking up with their own twin wasn’t what was making Dean’s throat tighten and his eyes want to fill with tears. It was that, in all his fantasies about what it would be like to be with either Cas or Jimmy, he’d never considered having to compete with the other twin. They were both out of his league, he’d always known, but now that he saw the “competition,” he knew he’d truly never had a shot at all.

“You don’t have to worry,” he found himself babbling. “I won’t say anything. And, uh, if you want…” He swallowed hard. “I can move out. You guys can have the room. I won’t get in the way.”

“Dean, wait!” one of them called as he started to turn away. “It’s not—”

Dean huffed in disbelief. “I’m an idiot, but I’m not completely brainless. It’s fine. Uh, I’ll just wait outside, make sure nobody else…” He waved a hand toward the door.

A hand, Jimmy’s, grabbed Dean’s arm. Castiel was frantically pulling on a pair of shorts from his locker. “Dean, I’m sorry,” Jimmy said.

“Dude, I said it was okay,” Dean said quietly. “For what it’s worth, I really do hope you guys are happy together. You seem like you are, anyway. I’m…I’m glad for you.”

“You’re not disgusted?” Castiel almost whispered, his cheeks flushed. Maybe the blush was from shame, or maybe it was lingering arousal. Whichever it was, Dean thought it looked lovely on him.

“Hah, no. Maybe a little jealous, but—” He cut himself off, not having meant to say that. “Never mind. I’ll go.”

Jimmy didn’t let go of his arm. “Jealous,” he repeated. “Jealous of who?”

And wasn’t that just the million dollar question? Dean grimaced, but he supposed things couldn’t get any worse. No matter what, he was probably losing his best friends; he had no idea how they could get over this level of uncomfortableness. “Both of you,” he muttered. “Honestly, both. I’ve been crazy for both of you guys for forever, so if you want to argue about which of us is the perviest…”

“Do we need to?” Castiel said, holding up his hands. “Argue, I mean? Dean, I know it’s the height of hypocrisy to say so right now, after what you just saw, but I think we all really, really need to sit down and talk about some things.”

“Cosigned,” Jimmy said; his eyes were impossibly huge, and they were scanning Dean’s face, only inches away, as though he’d never seen him before. “Holy shit.”

Dean couldn’t find words to reply, so he just nodded. Something about the scrutiny, coming from both Jimmy and Castiel, felt significant in ways he couldn’t describe. No matter. As he had since the first time they’d met, he’d follow the Novak twins wherever they led, for as long as he was allowed.

* * *

**V.**

“You know, you’d think that the 5000-meter record holder in the Big-10 would be more of a challenge to keep up with,” Jimmy drawled to Castiel, his teasing words obviously intended for the third person in their group. Dean, trailing along behind the other two as they jogged along the wooded path, made a face.

“I just set that record yesterday,” he retorted, “and it wasn’t easy. Hurt like hell, actually. This is supposed to be a recovery run.”

Castiel glanced backward over his shoulder. “Did we not do enough to help you ‘recover’ last night?” he asked innocently. “You certainly looked relaxed when we were through. If you still need more ‘recovery,’ that can be arranged.”

“Can we at least find a spot that’s more grass than dirt this time?” Jimmy said with a playful grimace. “Every time we come back from a run and I have dirt all over my knees, it just adds to my reputation as a complete klutz. The rest of the baseball guys have started calling me ‘Gravity,’ you know, because of how often they think I’m hitting the ground.”

Dean and Castiel laughed, and Jimmy joined in after a moment. “That was my first impression of you guys, you know,” Dean said. “All those years ago, the very first time I saw you, you were trotting out of the woods, blaming Jimmy’s dirty knees on a fall. Don’t tell me you guys were—”

“Oh, he actually did fall, that time,” Castiel said, smirking. “He just happened to already be wearing the ground.”

Jimmy flapped a disgruntled hand. “Is it my fault if my knees got stiff from kneeling on gravel, so I tripped over a root? That shit hurts, you know. And that was your first impression? Jeez, we noticed you way before that.”

“I believe my first impression involved seeing you taking down that little creep of a bully who was catcalling girls in the cafeteria,” Castiel agreed. “It was magnificent.”

Winking, Jimmy said, “Still gotta go with that ass, as far as I’m concerned. Certainly had me looking forward to gym class.”

“ _You’re_ an ass.”

“I’m _your_ ass.”

Dean just listened to the barbs flying between the brothers, basking in a satisfied glow. When the joking eased, he coughed to get their attention. “Of course, it’s my quads that are aching most,” he said. “Knees are doing just fine. Since we can’t have Jimmy earning a reputation he doesn’t deserve, I don’t mind at all taking that particular hit. Anybody comments, I can just say I was still tired from the meet, so…”

Castiel, in front, slowed to a stop. “Well,” he said, eyes glinting in the dim light of the woods. “You do make a compelling argument.”

“And this is about the two-mile point,” Jimmy said, tapping a finger to his lips. “Nice little glade up ahead, to the right.”

“Race you,” Dean growled, and when he took off at a sprint, the sound of the twins chasing after him put a grin on his face that felt permanent.   


End file.
